There are few things more dispiriting than losing the ability to communicate. And yet, every year, thousands of people across Canada awake to a new reality filled with elusive words and illegible text.

It’s this growing population that a team from the University of Windsor has set out to provide with a new voice and a new lease on life.

“Losing the ability to communicate can make a person feel lonely, depressed and make it difficult to seek help,” said UWindsor psychology professor Lori Buchanan. “More than 25 per cent of stroke patients are diagnosed with aphasia, which is caused by brain damage and creates some inability to process language.”

Aphasia Friendly Canada is a project from the University’s Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory and is operated by Dr. Buchanan, Julia Borsatto, and Laura Pineault. The neurological disorder is more prevalent than cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease and muscular dystrophy, and yet it’s a condition that is largely unknown to the general public.

“When you are diagnosed with aphasia there is often this loss of autonomy,” Pineault explained. “Many people have likely encountered a person with aphasia but don’t interact directly with them because they go out with a caregiver.

“We would like to give them that sense of autonomy back.”

Pineault first presented the idea for this project two years ago during the Council of Ontario Universities’ Innovative Designs for Accessibility competition, where she was the UWindsor entrant. Since then, she and other members of Buchanan's lab have created toolkits to assist businesses in becoming aphasia-friendly and founded support groups for those with aphasia and their caregivers.

In Windsor and Essex County, 17 businesses are participating in the program and can be identified by the "Aphasia Friendly" sticker in the window.

“Our team goes out into the community and works with businesses to teach them what aphasia is, how they can better communicate with someone with aphasia and provide them with custom materials,” Buchanan said.

She said local Tim Hortons owner Pat Hayes has enthusiastically enrolled all 13 of his restaurants.

“We give signs to these businesses and created nonverbal menus for them to use in their stores,” Buchanan said. “A benefit of this is that not only will you know how to communicate with people who can no longer speak, but you can now communicate with anyone who can’t speak English.”

Along with the intrinsic benefits to increased businesses, Buchanan said all businesses will be required to be aphasia-friendly once the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act is enforced in 2025.

“Right now, we are offering this service for free, but eventually businesses will have to pay for this,” she said.

The team is also hoping to connect with municipalities and first responders.

Borsatto, who began graduate study in clinical neuropsychology this fall, trained the City of Burlington’s parks and recreation over the summer.

“To offer hands-on training for the employees, we took a group of people with aphasia to a pool where they knew everyone at the customer service desk and lifeguards would be cognizant of what aphasia is and knew how to support conversations,” Borsatto said.

According to the Ontario Stroke Network, there are about 426,000 Canadians living with the effects of a stroke and about 50,000 new strokes in Canada every year. With about 25 to 40 per cent of stroke survivors acquiring aphasia, Buchanan said it’s vital for the region to improve its supports.

“Windsor is selling itself as a retirement destination, and with an older population you are more likely to get more people with aphasia,” she said.

Pineault said southwestern Ontario is a “blackout zone” for aphasia supports, but she hopes this program will help change that.

“We are helping businesses to be compliant, but we are also helping people with aphasia improve their quality of life,” she said. “We are working with Windsor Regional Hospital’s stroke navigator, and when someone wakes up with aphasia, we want them to know that they are supported and that there are businesses here that will be accessible for people with communication disorders.”

For more information about the program, or to enrol, visit www.AphasiaFriendlyCanada.ca.

High school students love hands-on activities, says Riverside Secondary School teacher Anna Dean, so coming to the UWindsor campus on Wednesday for GIS Day made for a great learning experience.

The day’s events provided about 70 students from local high schools a glimpse into the real-world applications of geographic information systems (GIS). Besides hearing from professionals discussing their use of the technology for everything from tracking arctic ducks to planning for sustainable energy developments, the students tried their own hands at flying remote control drones and mapping air pollutants in the city of Windsor.

“It’s nice for the University of Windsor to be able to show off their earth sciences department, and it’s nice for the students to learn about the real-world applications of this technology,” Dean said.

Her student, Cheyanne Cheverie, agreed.

“Everything today has been really informative,” she said. “I learned a lot about GIS and how it’s used as an actual live thing.”

Alice Grgicak-Mannion, geospatial learning specialist in the Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research, says the event also served to highlight the GIS certificate program currently in development.

“We are so glad to partner with the city to offer a glimpse into GIS and other geospatial technologies and the potential career opportunities they present,” she said. “These systems find use in our communities relating to the environment, criminology, municipal services, and more.”

The University of Windsor marked a key milestone in the construction of its new science research and innovation building Wednesday, as the final beam was placed on top of the structure’s frame during a “topping off” ceremony.

President Alan Wildeman was joined by team members from Amico Design Build, the building contractor, to sign the beam before hoisting it into position — a tradition traced to the ancient Scandinavian custom of placing a tree on top of a new building to appease the tree-dwelling spirits displaced in its construction. In today’s steel trade, it signifies that construction has reached the sky safely and bodes well for the future inhabitants of the building.

“This new structure will be a place of innovation in the areas of human health, medical physics, nano-technology, and biometrics — all benefiting society,” said Dr. Wildeman.

Each of the building’s three floors will be an open-concept lab devoted to the following areas of research:

• Advanced materials, including nano-technology and biometrics;
• Transitional health, bring discoveries from the laboratory to the bedside with particular emphasis on cancer;
• Medical physics, including medical imagining and diagnostic technologies.

The space is designed to be adaptable as usage needs change, and is intended to foster a collaborative research environment for faculty and students at both the graduate and undergraduate levels.

The 46,000 square foot project — an addition to Essex Hall — was announced in January of this year during an event with Navdeep Bains (MBA 2001), federal minister of innovation, science and economic development.

The University’s “Future Full of Promise” logo is now available for the campus community to add to e-mail signatures. The logo is now being used as part of UWindsor’s Promise Campaign.

The logo is available here for download. Director of Public Affairs and Communications John Coleman said hyperlinks can be also be added to the logo and customized by users. Individual faculties, for example, could attach a hyperlink to their websites. Departments or individuals could hyperlink to the University’s Admissions page.

“Many of us are regular e-mail users, so adding the logo to your signature is a great way to connect with others and reach out to prospective students,” said Coleman.

Filmmaker Mike Downie will answer questions from the audience following a free public screening of Gord Downie’s Secret Path in Concert on Friday, November 17.

Filmed at Toronto’s Roy Thomson Hall in October 2016, the one-hour film combines a live performance of Gord Downie’s album “Secret Path” with footage from the animated film and moments backstage.

A multimedia project conceived by the Downie brothers to address mistreatment of Indigenous children and families by the residential school system, “Secret Path” encompasses a graphic novel by Jeff Lemire in addition to the film and the Juno award-winning album.

Friday’s screening is set for 11:30 a.m. in Studio A in the basement of Lambton Tower.

The public is invited as eight M.Eng students discuss their co-op work experiences, Friday in the Centre for Engineering Innovation.

Participants are all students in the master of engineering in mechanical engineering with the automotive option program. They will present posters on their co-operative education placements from 2 to 4:30 p.m. in the east atrium of the building’s lobby.

Graduate students interested in an academic career will benefit from a panel discussion on the subject Friday, November 17.

People already engaged in higher education as teachers and researchers will discuss what it involves, starting at noon in room 107, Welcome Centre.

Attendees will learn how to pursue jobs in this field and have a chance to pose questions. This free event is part of the Propel professional development program for graduate students; register through the mySuccess portal or just drop in.

If you have a question you really want answered, send it ahead of time to sdupley@uwindsor.ca.

Faculty, staff, and retired members of the University of Windsor retirement pension plans are invited to attend the annual open pension meeting today — Thursday, November 16 — at 3 p.m. in the Oak Room, Vanier Hall.

Representatives from the actuarial firm, Mercer, and investment management firms will make presentations on the University’s retirement pension funds.

The handouts for the presentation are available here: www.uwindsor.ca/pensions/facultyemployee-plan-open-pension-meetings. Human Resources encourages employees to print them out and bring them to the meeting.